


Duty Above All

by rosensilence



Series: Ficlets [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Arkanis traditions, Arranged Marriage, Brendol Hux's A+ Parenting, Hux deserves better than this, M/M, Political Marriage, but I'm sure he gets a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:12:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosensilence/pseuds/rosensilence
Summary: It's Hux's duty to his father and to Arkanis to abandon his promising military career in favor of a political marriage to someone he's never met.  He deserves more than a cruel stranger for a husband and a loveless marriage, but maybe more is exactly what he'll get.





	Duty Above All

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely inspired by this [wonderful art](http://katiesghosts.tumblr.com/post/177127286059/i-dont-want-to-meet-my-husband-for-the-first) by the equally wonderful Katie's Ghost.

It had been a long time since Hux had stood in his childhood bedroom. It was exactly the same as it always had been; cold and impersonal. His father—the illustrious Commandant Brendol Hux—had no time for children’s games and toys, so therefore, neither did his son. Armitage’s childhood had been filled with tactical warfare and playing soldier, and had held a distinct lack of anything approaching fun or affection.

Hux had been raised to do his duty, and do his duty he would. For so long that had meant enrolling at the academy and being the best in everything—shooting, hand-to-hand-combat, strategy and the unique brand of backstabbing that was required to stay alive. Hux had excelled at them all and had been the number one recruit since he had first walked through the door. He had even enjoyed himself, a little.

Unfortunately for Hux, his duty required more than becoming the perfect soldier.

As well as being the Commandant of the burgeoning First Order, Brendol Hux was also part of the elite that ruled the planet Arkanis. Arkanis had a rich history that dated back millennia and had its own customs that the populace was very proud of. As one of the elite families, Brendol was bound to uphold these customs.

And that was why—on the twenty-second day after his twenty-second birthday—Armitage was back in his childhood bedroom for the first time since he’d left for the academy ten years ago. 

His scores at the academy, the small unit of stormtroopers he had recently taken command of, and the recommendations for promotion from his senior officers were all now reduced to nothing. None of it mattered. His duty to the First Order—something drilled into him constantly at the academy—came second to his duty to Arkanis, and to the good name of his father.

He was going to be wed. To a man he’d never met.

Hux looked at himself in the full length mirror that stood in his bedroom. He remembered standing in front of that mirror in his first First Order uniform and how proud he had felt to wear it. Now, as he looked at himself again, he felt sad and empty.

The dress was beautiful. Spun from the finest lace in the galaxy and set with sparkling stones that reflected even the rain cloud covered sunlight of Arkanis. It covered him from neck to ankles, but was sheer from the waist up. Despite his proficiency in combat at the academy he never had filled out with muscle in the same way most of the other recruits had and remained as slim as ever. 

Hux glanced over his flat chest, soft stomach and slim arms, and sighed. Would his new husband be disappointed that he wasn’t the physical specimen that his academy classmates had become? Would he consider Hux to be weak, and therefore easy to bully? Hux knew how to kill a man in a hundred different ways, but he also knew that killing his new husband would bring eternal disgrace on both his family, and his planet.

It would be the same as signing as his own death warrant.

Hux wrapped his arms around himself. He wasn’t used to wearing makeup, but one of his father’s attendants had decorated his face in the old Arkanis style. His eyeshadow was the same pale blue as his dress, and he had a line of white dots running beneath his lips. Hux remembered seeing holofilms from decades gone by of beautiful people wearing similar makeup, but it had become a lost art. 

Arkanis had lost so much after the fall of the Empire. Most of the Outer Rim had. The Empire—although cruel—had allowed Arkanis to retain a certain degree of autonomy as long as quotas and financial obligations had been met. The New Republic, however, had questioned the Arkanis customs, and stripped so many of them away.

That’s why this wedding was so important. Hux was due to marry a true son of the New Republic and it was hoped that the marriage would raise the standing of Arkanis. Those that lived in the glory and opulence of the Core Worlds cared little for the Outer Rim and it was Armitage’s duty to change that.

At least until the First Order were strong enough to change it by force.

The morning was growing late and Hux knew it wouldn’t be long before the ceremony was due to begin. He took one last look around his childhood bedroom, knowing that it was likely to be the last time he ever saw it. He wished he had more happy memories to take with him, but the only memories he had of this room were of studying and cowering from his father.

There was a knock at his door, and the same attendant that had done his makeup stepped inside. It was time. 

The ride to the government buildings where the ceremony was due to take place was short and lonely. Neither the attendant nor driver spoke to Hux, but the pity in the driver’s eyes said enough. Hux shivered as they drove—both through cold and nerves—but there was no comfort to be found. Comfort, reassurance, a kind word—these were things that Hux had never had, and would be unlikely to find in his political marriage.

When they arrived, he was quickly whisked from the speeder to a waiting room. It was decorated in the customary muted browns and greens that could be seen everywhere on Arkanis and it made Hux feel even more self conscious in his pale-blue gown. He was a soldier and a highly trained weapon, yet here he was, wrapped up in prettiness as he was sold to the enemy.

It wasn’t fair. His life should have been more than this.

His father looked at him with disdain when he arrived to escort Hux to the ceremonial hall, but he said nothing. For that, Hux was grateful. There would be no tearful goodbyes or pledges to keep in touch from the Commandant, nor did Hux want them. Brendol could burn in the fires of Mustafar for all Hux cared.

The ceremonial hall was lined with flowers that matched the blue of Hux’s gown, but he paid them no attention. He didn’t see the crowd of people that had gathered to watch the end of his freedom either. If he had, he’d have seen the elite of Arkanis dressed in muted colors, and the small contingent from the Core Worlds swathed in an explosion of color and decadence. No, all of Hux’s attention was grabbed by the person stood at the head of the altar.

His betrothed. His soon-to-be-husband. The man Hux had never met.

Hux had expected to be married to someone old, with a protruding waist made soft by laziness and greed, and a cruel face; a Core Worlds version of his father. Proud and paunchy in a military uniform he was no longer fit to wear. Instead, his fiancé was young, strong, and had a face that although angry, didn’t appear cruel. He was dressed just as prettily as Hux in a floor-length red robe and heavily painted face. 

The young man had yet to look at Hux and was instead staring ahead, his brown eyes fixated on something that Hux couldn’t see. Then slowly, the man began to turn. The anger drained out of his face to be replaced by nerves, and there was a softness in his eyes that Hux recognized intimately. This man—this stranger—was just as nervous and lost as Hux was. This wasn’t a cruel old man getting a pretty young husband to abuse and dominate, this was a son being forced into a marriage that he didn’t want.

Just like Hux.

When they were instructed to hold hands by the Master conducting the ceremony, Hux did so with a confidence he didn’t think he would feel. His soon-to-be-husband’s hands were shaking, but Hux’s weren’t. He tried to transfer some of the confidence the academy had instilled in him into those shaking hands, and it seemed to work. The other man stood tall, and his blood red lips finally lost the permanent frown they’d been framed into.

His name was Ben Organa-Solo, Hux learned as the ceremony progressed. The son of the Rebellion’s greatest heroes and the grandson of a Queen of Naboo. What strings had his father pulled to get such a prize for the bastard son he hated? Why had Princess Leia of Alderaan given her only son to a disgraced Outer Rim planet like Arkanis?

Hux doubted he’d ever know.

One thing he did know though as Ben hesitantly kissed him to seal their contract, was that Hux had a chance of making this work. He’d never be the First Order General that he wanted to be, but he could find a way to survive this new life with his new husband. And when Ben pulled away, his brown eyes blown black and a shy smile upon his lips, Hux thought that maybe, he could even find something to enjoy.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://rosensilence.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rosensilence)!


End file.
